I was just perusing eBay and ran across this baby....

This is an RCA, LDR500, which appears to be a mixed clone from a CLD-M90 (same front face except fewer buttons) and a CLD-M301 (same back panel but with an additional set of AV output jacks).









I always thought that Pioneer never made clones of the M's but I guess I was wrong. I don't recall seeing these back in 1993 so maybe there were very few made.

Woow...sleeeek. How much was it ?

I’m pretty sure there were others. Sears, probably. That idea made sense to a lot of people including me. Those decks all suck though, IIRC. Is there an Elite version or even one with field memory?

IIRC, one of these was $300-500 depending on when and where you got it. Performance was on par with the other early 90s cheap decks with no field memory.

They...break easy. That’s a bit problem. Also, they were owned more by people who gave up on LD early and just used it as a CD player so when you find them they’ve been powered down for 26 years by now.

Here is the link....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153675785877?V ... 3675785877

I wouldn't buy it since in my opinion it is overpriced for what it is (seen a Pioneer CLD-M90 still cheaper at a local electronics store) and it probably would not survive a trip in the mail.

Thank you for preserving the pics!

=> RCA LDR500

Julien

Yes preserve the pics and toss that junk player, probably won't even work anymore.

I used to think the M’s were complete junk but at this stage of the game every working player should be preserved and any non functioning one’s retained for spare parts. They are no worse than the low cost single side players and the added dimension of them being CD Changers makes them even more special.

Even my M90 developed a faulty gear soon after getting the AC3 mod completed and I wasn’t about to chuck it after spending so much time and research on it. Thank goodness for cplusplus for helping me out on the part and now she’s good as new again .

I understand but I have had one of each, this type and also the single sided 201 style, both never worked and I had to trash them after getting them in a lot.

Well….. I will admit that I recently violated my own rule by chucking two Samsung players but my reasoning was because…

1) Both appeared to have bad Sony pick-ups so there was little chance I’d find NOS pick-ups that are in good shape so I wouldn’t want to risk losing more money for the sake of two low end units.
2) Both had no remote control so the chance of finding one (or two) on-line would be next to impossible and we all know what it’s like not having full functionality of a player.
3) Samsung in general never had a big footprint in LD so spare parts from donor machines would be next to nill. It would always be better to try and fix a Pioneer since spare parts machines are in much greater abundance (although that is dwindling as time goes on).

I guess I am lucky on most levels that I have more working vs dead machines. But I admit a lot of my players are the higher end models which appear to be more reliable (or not).

Might be the exception here, but I picked up an M401 locally for $50 for a friend... it worked as-purchased but the tray need some help (prying) to open. A tray belt replacement (not the easiest I've done, but got through it) got the tray moving correctly and it's been solid for him for the last year ~2 years. He uses it once or twice a month, so critical PQ wasn't a huge concern so it does the trick.